Mass destruction terrorism and WMD

"Terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot
of people dead," Brian Jenkins opined. Jenkins's premise was based on the assumption
that terrorist behavior is normative, and that if they exceeded certain constraints and
employed WMD they would completely alienate themselves from the public and possibly
provoke swift and harsh retaliation. This assumption does seem to apply to certain secular
terrorist groups.

Psychologist B. J. Berkowitz describes six psychological
types who would be most likely to threaten or try to use WMD: paranoids, paranoid
schizophrenics, borderline mental defectives, schizophrenic types, passive-aggressive
personality types, and sociopath personalities. He considers sociopaths the most likely
actually to use WMD.

Nuclear terrorism expert Jessica Stern though disagrees.
She believes that "Schizophrenics and sociopaths, for example, may want to commit
acts of mass destruction, but they are less likely than others to succeed." She
points out that large-scale dissemination of chemical, biological, or radiological agents
requires a group effort, but that "Schizophrenics, in particular, often have
difficulty functioning in groups...."

Stern's understanding of the WMD terrorist appears to be
much more relevant than Berkowitz's earlier stereotype of the insane terrorist. It is
clear from the appended case study of Shoko Asahara that he is a paranoid. Whether he is
schizophrenic or sociopathic is best left to psychologists to determine. The case study of
Ahmed Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the World Trade Center (WTC) bombing on February 26,
1993, does not suggest that he is schizophrenic or sociopathic. On the contrary, he
appears to be a well-educated, highly intelligent Islamic terrorist.

In 1972 Berkowitz could not have been expected to foresee
that religiously motivated terrorists would be prone to using WMD as a way of emulating
God or for millenarian reasons. This examination of about a dozen groups that have engaged
in significant acts of terrorism suggests that the groups most likely to use WMD are
indeed religious groups, whether they be wealthy cults like Aum Shinrikyo or well-funded
Islamic terrorist groups like al-Qaida or Hizballah.

Trends in terrorism over the past three decades have
contradicted the conventional thinking that terrorists are averse to using WMD. It has
become increasingly evident that the assumption does not apply to religious terrorist
groups or millenarian cults.

A trend can be seen: the emergence of religious
fundamentalist and new religious groups espousing the rhetoric of mass-destruction
terrorism. In the 1990s, groups motivated by religious imperatives, such as Aum Shinrikyo,
Hizballah, and al-Qaida, have grown and proliferated. Their outlook is one that divides
the world simplistically into "them" and "us." With its sarin attack
on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995, the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo turned the
prediction of terrorists using WMD into reality.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Aum Shinrikyo engaged in a systematic program to develop and
use WMD. It was Aum Shinrikyo's sarin attack on the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, that
showed the world how dangerous the mindset of a religious terrorist group could be. These
religiously motivated groups would have no reason to take "credit" for such an
act of mass destruction, just as Aum Shinrikyo did not take credit for its attack on the
Tokyo subway, and just as Osama bin Laden did not take credit for various acts of
high-casualty terrorism against U.S. targets in the 1990s. Taking credit means asking for
retaliation. Instead, it is enough for these groups to simply take private satisfaction in
knowing that they have dealt a harsh blow to what they perceive to be the "Great
Satan."

The contrast between key members of religious extremist groups such as Hizballah,
al-Qaida, and Aum Shinrikyo and conventional terrorists reveals some general trends
relating to the personal attributes of terrorists likely to use WMD in coming years.
According to psychologist Jerrold M. Post, the most dangerous terrorist is likely to be
the religious terrorist. Post has explained that, unlike the average political or social
terrorist, who has a defined mission that is somewhat measurable in terms of media
attention or government reaction, the religious terrorist can justify the most heinous
acts "in the name of Allah," for example.

New breeds of increasingly dangerous religious terrorists
emerged in the 1990s. The most dangerous type is the Islamic fundamentalist. A case in
point is Ramzi Yousef, who brought together a loosely organized, ad hoc group, the
so-called Liberation Army, apparently for the sole purpose of carrying out the WTC
operation on February 26, 1993. Moreover, by acting independently the small self-contained
cell led by Yousef prevented authorities from linking it to an established terrorist
organization, such as its suspected coordinating group,Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, or a
possible state sponsor.

Aum Shinrikyo is representative of the other type of religious terrorist group, in this
case a cult. Shoko Asahara adopted a different approach to terrorism by modeling his
organization on the structure of the Japanese government rather than an ad hoc terrorist
group. Accordingly, Aum Shinrikyo "ministers" undertook a program to develop WMD
by bringing together a core group of bright scientists skilled in the modern technologies
of the computer, telecommunications equipment, information databases, and financial
networks. They proved themselves capable of developing rudimentary WMD in a relatively
short time and demonstrated a willingness to use them in the most lethal ways possible.
Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system in 1995 marked the official
debut of terrorism involving WMD.

Increasingly, terrorist groups are recruiting members with expertise in fields such as
communications, computer programming, engineering, finance, and the sciences. Ramzi Yousef
graduated from Britain's Swansea University with a degree in engineering.
Aum Shinrikyo's Shoko Asahara recruited a scientific team with all the expertise needed to
develop WMD. Osama bin Laden also recruits highly skilled professionals.